Don't Mesa With the Locals
by Random Guise
Summary: A short prequel to the Larry Niven book "A Gift From Earth". Boys will be boys, as the saying goes, even on Mount Lookitthat and some activities are a calculated risk. Sometimes you calculate wrong. I don't own the setting, but these four characters are all OCs.


**A/N: This story takes place before the events of Larry Niven's "A Gift From Earth".**

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Don't Mesa With the Locals

Thomas Simon Yagura bristled, his ears turning red in a mixture of anger and embarrassment. "I am not!"

The three boys facing him stood together, deriving strength from their bullying that none had alone. They weren't particularly older than Thomas, or smarter, and they didn't come from families that were better off. All the families on Zeta Plateau tended to be of the same colonist class; average affluence among the descendants of colonists and far below those descended from crew that lived on Alpha Plateau. Those privileged enough to have ancestors that counted themselves among the original crew of the settlers' slowboat ships the _Planck_ or _Arthur Clarke_ were not only in a completely separate and higher social class, but their homes were on the highest flat area of land as well.

The totality of the planet that was habitable was relegated to the top of a mountain forty miles high, a mesa about half the size of an area on Earth called California. The automated survey ship that had recorded a place humans could live left out the fact that most of the planet was quite lethal. The rest of the surface below was lost in the mists of a swirling vapor and soup of a poisonous atmosphere not unlike Venus, although instead of Sol this planet looked toward Tau Ceti for light. The settlement was called Mount Lookitthat, and the various plateaus were separated by chasms and gorges spanned by bridges. The only cars available were for Alpha residents or official use; although most had seen the flying cars on occasion the vast majority got around on foot or by bicycle.

"Bobby Dozer did it and he was bigger than you!" Allen Longstreet countered. With friends Samuel and Daniel Lopek. fraternal twins he had known all his life, he challenged Thomas with the implied slight. Bobby may not actually have been bigger than Thomas, but since Thomas had recently arrived to the plateau he wouldn't have known that. Bobby was relocated after his father was caught in some crime.

What the crime was Allen wasn't sure. It didn't matter, because once the police force known as Implementation convicted you it didn't matter what the crime was when the punishment was the same; the guilty had the 'honor' of becoming raw material for the organ transplant banks maintained and used almost exclusively by the Alphas.

"But...Holy mist demons, it's against the law!" Thomas stammered. Of course it was against the law; it was dangerous, and more importantly if you died in the attempt they may not be able to recover your body for use in the organ banks, located somewhere deep in the slowboat ships that had been converted into hospitals after the first buildings were constructed after arrival.

But initiation ceremonies into young boys groups often involved some type of dangerous or mildly illegal activity, and this was no exception. With the nature of the climate and geography, the edge of the outer plateaus dropped off into a virtual void. Mount Lookitthat may have a flat top and even a permanent glacier on the high north end, but the sides were sheer and no one attempted to climb them. But although sheer, the sides were not completely smooth everywhere and in a few spots channels could be seen running straight down into the mists. It also made for a few places that, if you knew where to go, had updrafts that came up the side of the cliff and blew up over the mesa when weather conditions were right. It was not unheard of to fly kites in the area. But what the boys had done previously went well beyond that and into what would have been viewed not only as foolhardy but criminal as well. Maybe not as dangerous to society as being a member of the revolutionary "Sons of Earth" underground movement, as the current incarnation of the group called themselves; but too much non-conformity was frowned on and resistance was snuffed out when found.

"We've done it, and you can't join the group unless you do it too. Just once is all, and you're a member; no one's ever gotten hurt, and we keep a lookout so no one gets caught. Unless you aren't brave enough" Daniel said, crossing his arms. "Not all of us can be a Simon Barsin."

That was a low blow. Thomas' middle name was for the original pilot of the _Planck_ , and he always felt a kinship for the career that he could never hope to have. But to challenge his bravery was another matter, and while he may have wanted to do anything else Thomas puffed out his chest and heard himself say "Okay. When?"

The demeanor of the boys changed. Once the challenge was accepted, it was their job to make sure everything went smoothly. "We should have a good draft coming up at sunset over at Kite Point" Samuel stated from experience. "Be there at seven, and be sure to bring a kite with you! If no one's around then we're a go." The boys split up and went their separate ways.

Long before the appointed time the three boys had set up at the site. The twins had hauled out a portable canopy for their bikes, kites and backpacks. Thomas showed up a little before seven, and together they flew their kites along with a few other boys. They talked with the others and even offered tips on construction and control techniques, but as the sun made its way to the horizon the others said their goodbyes and headed home. The boys continued their kite flying, but if one observed carefully one would have seen them looking about more often and shortening the leads on their kites until finally all were safely aground.

"I'll go out about fifty feet for lookout" Daniel volunteered, taking his kite and setting up station a distance away. He laid the kite on the ground and pretended to be doing maintenance while in fact his eyes were darting about the area. Jesus Pietro Castro, the head of Implementation, may not be able to have his police watching everywhere, but it didn't stop him from giving the impression that he could.

Allen stepped up. "Now's the time, let's do it Sam." Quickly, with practiced hands they broke down the canopy and with some twists and snaps shaped it into a winged wonder, much like the hang gliders of Earth. Allen went over the operation of the craft quickly; Thomas had already been briefed previously but this was the real thing. With a nod and a gulp he fitted himself under the glider as Daniel waved the all-clear signal. He quickly stepped to the edge, seeing that the mists were rising from the updraft that would be his source of lift. Knowing that if he thought about it too long he'd back out, he stepped off the edge thinking of the pilot Simon Barsin for strength.

He started by falling, and wondered if he would just plummet down to his death, but the winds caught his glider strongly and lifted, raising him above the level of the plateau. He did not know this until he leaned into a left turn and came around to see the Allen and Sam left behind on the ground near the edge; no chance to wave as he kept a firm grip on his main horizontal bar. He planned to glide back straight to land on the ground, but a horrible sound caught his ear as the metal frame kinked, and with a terrible grinding sound bent and collapsed. The glider fell in on itself and Thomas became wrapped in a cocoon of fabric and framework as he tumbled down past the plateau level and further into the darkening mists.

He spun as he fell, and his panic caused him to take large gulps of the air that was becoming thicker and nastier. "This is how it will end; I wonder if I will still be awake when I hit the ground" was his thought as a sudden uptake caught him in a grinding crush. Folded almost in a fetal position he lost track of his falling and in the violent movement got sick and threw up. His ears popped and suddenly he was rolling in a ball that was all the fabric and metal around him until he came to a stop.

While he lay still, he found that he could still breathe normally. He heard pounding steps approach and then he was being dug out of the pile by several pairs of hands. Extracted from the wreckage, he collapsed on his back and saw Allen, Sam and Daniel looking down on him.

"Are you alright", "Are you hurt" and "Where did you go" were some of the questions that were thrown at him, but he had to clear his head before answering.

"Yeah, I think I'm alright but I'm covered in sick. I glided out, and after I turned to come back the thing collapsed. I fell and must have caught a big updraft that threw me back here. If I have to do that again you can keep your stupid club for yourselves."

"Don't worry about it Tom, you're in now" Allen assured him. "But we have to pick our stuff up and get out of here in case anyone saw us. Let's go." They hoisted Thomas to his feet and starting picking up their backpacks, kites and assorted equipment.

As they attempted to fold the glider back into some sort of shape Sam studied a section of the frame. "Hey guys, look at this…" he said as he held the frame out for the others to see. They gathered around and studied the metal tubing; not the areas that had buckled and bent, but another section that was straight. In the middle the tubing was crushed in all around, as though something grabbed it with great force. Three distinctive grooves showed where large fingers, toes or other appendages might have gripped it tightly. "Great mist de…" he trailed off. All three looked at the crushed frame before their gazes slowly shifted to the edge.

"Tom, I don't think you were alone out there" Allen surmised. "But if we tell anyone about this we'll be confessing to a crime AND no one would believe us anyway. Only one thing to do" he said as he grabbed and glider and drug it over to the edge, heaving it over until the rest fell off into the darkness. He turned to the other boys. "This _never_ happened."

"Yes it did" Thomas shuddered "but it won't happen again. I'm leaving my feet on the ground."

The End

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 **A/N: The novel had to do with class struggle and the underground movement to upend the status quo, but this story takes place far from those things. If there are still things being discovered in our world after all this time, how much more so on a new world?**


End file.
